New Domainshttp://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff
Tue, 18 Nov 2014 14:46:00 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2Attn Dick Costolo: The Answer to Your Onboarding Problems Already Existshttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2014/11/18/attn-dick-costolo-the-answer-to-your-onboarding-problems-already-exists/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2014/11/18/attn-dick-costolo-the-answer-to-your-onboarding-problems-already-exists/#commentsTue, 18 Nov 2014 14:46:00 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=771With Twitter’s stock price hovering below $41 a share (down from the high of $78), Dick Costolo has been in the Ninth Circle of quarterly reporting Hell addressing analyst and investor concerns about how Twitter is working to improve growth and engagement (they are worried it isn’t). Most importantly, he is feeling the pressure to address concerns over how Twitter intends to spur growth and encourage new users to join the platform. This has Costolo focused on an altogether different circle – what he terms the 3rd in three concentric circles of users: specifically those that view Twitter content on other sites (i.e. through embedded Twitter feeds).

Luckily for Mr. Costolo the tool to reach this audience already exists and is not nearly as limited as an embedded Twitter feed built to feature a specific user or search term. Even more incredibly, it was built to accomplish the three things Costolo needs to happen quickly in order to appease investors:

It makes Twitter more intuitive to new users;

It increases the potential for meaningful engagement;

It increases Twitter’s presence across the web (something CFO Anthony Noto needs to have happen if he is to reach that $11 billion revenue number he claims is possible)

Embedle: The Twitter Tool Built to Reach Everyone/Everywhere

Embedle is a Twitter tool that was built in 2012 by Fei Deng and Daoliang Yang, programmers who sought to make a great communications tool (Twitter) even better. Because it was not built as a stand-alone platform, but rather a booster tool to increase engagement for Twitter users, it has faced hurdles in gaining virality. However, the concept itself is extremely simple and the tool (used as either a Chrome extension or a browser button) allows anyone reading any page on the web to view all of the Tweets that are associated with that page. The effect is that a person can uncover the hidden Twitter conversation related to whatever content they are reading online.

Twitter tries to focus on spreading its content

1. Making Twitter More Intuitive to New Users

Legg Mason’s Bill Miller told the WSJ that his concern is Twitter has not succeeded in designing better ways to teach non-Twitter users how to navigate the site. (Legg Mason just sold off 200,000 shares of Twitter – perhaps the best illustration of their reaction to Twitter’s failure to move quickly on this matter). Miller is not the only one to bring this challenge to the attention of Twitter’s CEO. According to TheNextWeb, Yousaf Sekander, a director at Rocketmill reached out to Mr. Costolo on the same topic, suggesting Twitter might incorporate “topic specific timelines” to allow new users to better follow conversations. Mr. Costolo for his part acknowledged that this is something his team has grappled with.

Grapple no more Twitter team: Embedle does this easily around every web page on the Internet.

To see Embedle in action go to www.embedle.com and paste this link (or any link) into the search bar and hit the “discover” button. Embedle will generate all of the Tweets that have occurred around this article (or the page you are searching) – effectively revealing a Twitter feed around a single topic that you already have shown an interest in.

Twitter, which has infinitely more data than they give their developers access to could easily expand on Embedle’s concept. If a page has less than a desirable amount of Tweets, Twitter could use SEO tags to identify related terms and pull in Tweets with related hashtags.

To non-Tweeters, Twitter is a frustrating riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. When a non-Twitter user hears comments like “Ferguson Missouri is blowing up on Twitter” or “the hashtag #sorrynotsorry is trending right now” they have no idea what that means and it adds to the perception that Twitter is confusing and elitist – not the type of branding that helps a company leap into the stratosphere of global reach.

However, if those same non-Tweeters were reading an article online about Ferguson, Missouri and Twitter leveraged the power of Embedle – that reader could instantly see any Tweets about that article as well as any Tweets that Twitter decided matched that topic (i.e. any tweets with tagged #Ferguson and #FergusonGrandJury). The effect would be presenting Twitter to new users in a cohesive, streamlined, and intuitive way around a topic that user has already expressed an interest in. A scenario that makes for a much more welcoming first impression (and in some cases will even spur first time Twitter engagement).

Twitter needs to find new ways to build a bridge to reach new users

2. It Increases Meaningful Engagement

One of Twitter’s biggest barriers to growth is that for the average user, it can often feel like Tweets are lost in the ether. During a recent lecture at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, Mr. Costolo described Twitter as a global town square. But, a single population of people all making statements without a population of listeners to react to those statements is not a town square that stays populated for long.

If I stand outside and shout out a short message to the world at the top of my lungs, at least I will hear an echo of my own voice…a natural acknowledgement that someone has heard my words (even if that someone is only me). On Twitter, when a user Tweets, unless someone responds to it there is no acknowledgement that anyone has heard what that user has had to say. This lack of engagement is highly discouraging to Twitter users (especially new Tweeters) and is quite possibly the biggest reason why Twitter has 500 million logged out users (TechCrunch).

By leveraging Embedle, Twitter increases the chances that Tweets will be discovered and reacted to by people who have a high level of interest in the topic being discussed. It allows Tweets sent days, weeks or months prior to still have a place to be featured and discovered. It drives engagement off of the “comment” effect. Being able to see what others think about what we are reading online spurs us to react – and engagement on Twitter requires reaction – a very serious problem that Costolo and his team have yet to resolve.

Wouldn’t it be great if people could discover Twitter without having to visit the site. Simply “consume”

3. It Increases Twitter’s Presence Across the Web

Twitter currently boasts 185 billion impressions per quarter across the web through embedded content (i.e. streams that site owners embed on their site that highlight either a specific user account, or a specific hashtag). With Twitter CFO Anthony Noto boasting it is within their grasp to go from $1.4 billion in revenue to $11 billion (only a former Goldman banker could throw out growth forecasting like that without blushing), Twitter needs to vastly increase their reach and their presence across the web.

Leveraging Embedle would give Twitter an instant presence on every page of the Internet. Yes. Every single page. That is a heck of a lot of real estate for hosting advertisements and promoted Tweets. It is also quite possibly the best way to reach non-Tweeters with the “buy button” the firm has indicated it will be rolling out soon.

In an article about why he invested $1,000 into Twitter, Business Insider’s Jim Edwards nailed the observation that Twitter’s biggest problem is also its greatest strength. Edwards noted that Twitter has a massive embedded structure across the web. This structure has enormous growth and earnings potential, but Twitter needs to find a way to leverage that structure to please and entice users. This is the challenge that Costolo and his team face right now.

The executive team has managed to use some of Twitter’s enormous cash reserves to buy up 9 firms that focus on data collection over the past year. What they need to do now is focus on targeting the 3rd circle of users that Costolo has identified as vital to the company’s growth. Edwards agrees, noting “Twitter is better at data than it is at pleasing its users”.

Perhaps with a purchase of Embedle, Costolo and his team could show that they understand the necessity of creating a product that not only has high engagement amongst its acolytes, but also provides an easy way to discover important Tweets and socially engage with compelling content for current users as well as those who have yet to sign up for an account.

]]>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2014/11/18/attn-dick-costolo-the-answer-to-your-onboarding-problems-already-exists/feed/1For Retailers This Season it’s not HO HO HO, but Ohio, Ohio, Ohiohttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/11/28/for-retailers-this-season-its-not-ho-ho-ho-but-ohio-ohio-ohio/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/11/28/for-retailers-this-season-its-not-ho-ho-ho-but-ohio-ohio-ohio/#commentsWed, 28 Nov 2012 17:35:58 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=727Everyone knows that if you want to succeed at something (like being President, or building the newest social network sensation, or becoming the biggest ecommerce driver in years) you need to seek the approval of a very specific group: The women of Ohio.

As a tech startup with access to thousands of female consumers Hatchedit.com, the micro-social network built around organization tools, surveyed women across the country regarding their 2012 Holiday Shopping Habits. Additionally, Hatchedit partnered with Mom-Spot (a growing group of women harnessing their power as consumers to provide research and focus group information to brands), to survey a subset of women – the women who drive carpools, elections, AND the economy – the women of Ohio.

We can sum it up in one point: They are thinking frugally.

62% anticipate cutting back on 2012 spending compared to 2011.

69% have budgeted $500 or less for holiday gift spending in 2012.

The diffusing of Black Friday (as acknowledged by Matthew Shay, Chief Executive of the National Retail Federation) is of no surprise to anyone who has spoken with an Ohio female consumer. As a whole, they definitely keep an eye out for special sales on the “big dates” like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but overall, their quest to save money surpasses the draw of any single shopping day.

57% said that no single sale day was very important to their shopping strategy.

As one savings-minded Ohioan explained, “Deals are most important to me regardless of where or when they occur”.

Note: Perhaps an unintended consequence of deal sites, daily deal emails, online coupon codes, coupon apps, and comparison shopping tools are a host of women who now find it unbearable to pay full price for anything. Another consequence of the growing adoption of online shopping may be that women no longer have a perception of limited inventory. If you can search the entire web (and the world) for a product, you never feel the pressing need to take advantage of a deal “right now!” in a store that would have you believe an item will soon sell out.

Online shopping on Black Friday surpassed $1 Billion for the first time (comScore)

Women have also grown vastly more comfortable with e-commerce. Of course, studies by large research firms have shown that women have been spending more time on social media sites then men, but the women of Ohio are telling us that they are also researching more products online as consumers, and that online ads are swaying them more than television commercials. Of course, this may take into account the online ads cooked up by social networks like Facebook that disguise ads as friend recommendations – as 55% of Ohio women said family and friends would sway their purchase decisions.

50% of Ohio Women said that they would make “most of their holiday purchases” online

This growing focus on making purchases while online, may mean that Internet advertising (which has been underwhelming for many brands looking to connect with consumers) will have a higher return for brands this year and in coming years. One thing is for certain, online advertisers would make good use of their banner space by marrying advertising with coupons and deals as 65% of Ohio moms say coupons will play a role in what they decide to purchase this Holiday season.

]]>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/11/28/for-retailers-this-season-its-not-ho-ho-ho-but-ohio-ohio-ohio/feed/055% of Female Consumers Indicate a Tighter 2012 Holiday Shopping Budgethttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/11/19/55-of-female-consumers-indicate-a-tighter-2012-holiday-shopping-budget/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/11/19/55-of-female-consumers-indicate-a-tighter-2012-holiday-shopping-budget/#commentsMon, 19 Nov 2012 15:10:44 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=705Retailers are quite possibly going to be in for a severe letdown this holiday season, as a majority of female consumers have indicated that they intend to spend less on the holidays in 2012 than they did in 2011. While the National Retail Federation has expressed a slightly more positive outlook (predicting a 4% bump in sales), women – who are the drivers of the economy – are not embracing the traditional “shop ‘til you drop” holiday spirit.

Hatchedit.com the free micro social network built around organization tools (shareable calendars, to do lists, etc), reached out to our user base for a holiday shopping survey. Looking over the input from the audience of tech savvy female consumers who responded, we feel confident in warning retailers that they may want to lower expectations as we move into the holiday shopping season.

A full 55% of our respondents indicated that they would spend less on Holiday 2012 than they did on Holiday 2011.

That this population of women – famously termed “The rocket fuel of e-commerce” is still showing a lag in enthusiasm for spending in general may be the most accurate indicator of the US economy that we currently have. (Certainly it has to be more accurate than jobs numbers.) Specifically, respondents to our survey (and the resulting white paper “2012 Holiday Shopping with the Tech Savvy Female Consumer”) indicated that employment distress, economic worries, and stricter budgeting all were leading to tighter holiday shopping constraints. In short, after 4 years women are not yet feeling a “rebound”.

In fact, 59.7% indicated purchases will be influenced directly by what coupons they have, which means everyone is still looking for the best deals they can get.

So that should mean that Black Friday and Cyber Monday will see the enormous spikes in sales that have grown to be expected, right? Not necessarily.

Brick and mortar stores hold little appeal for our tech savvy female consumers. 65.5% said that they would be doing MOST of their shopping online (even easier as this year there are 3 additional shopping days in the “Holiday Season”). However, even Cyber Monday (although it was ranked the most important single sale day by our users) may be curtailed by the fact that almost half of the women (49.6%) said no single sale day would impact their shopping strategy.

How is this possible?

We believe the proliferation of daily deal sites (i.e., fab.com) and daily deal emails (i.e., StrollerTraffic), embraced by many retailers have created unintended consequences.

Traditionally, in a brick and mortar store the supply/demand concept is felt instantaneously when one sees that there is only one of “the perfect gift” left on the shelf. However, generally speaking traditional online retail has found itself branded as an overstocked cyber warehouse with unlimited quantities of products and where consumers are hard pressed to embrace buying anything that they don’t feel they are getting at some discounted rate. (Even free shipping is no longer an enticement, but a requirement for many consumers).

Add to that the fact that our respondents could not enthusiastically come up with any single item that was a “must have” gift to give this year, and shoppers are likely only going to be spurred to buying when they see they are not being played by “the house”.

This week in Las Vegas “Crowdfunding Bootcamp” will kick off what many hope will in 2013, be the means for large amounts of cash to infuse entrepreneurs and small businesses across the country.

Crowdfunding is what occurs when entrepreneurs receive investments from “the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their resources, usually via the Internet”. (Source) Up until now Kickstarter was probably the best known crowdfunding platform, allowing people to trade anything from t-shirts, to products, to thank you cards to investors willing to back their dreams.

But portions of the JOBS Act signed by President Obama in 2012 will give new platforms the chance to turn crowdfunding into a much more powerful industry.

In seeking to allow more cash to reach the entrepreneurs and small businesses shut out by tighter investment restrictions seen by banks and VCs post 2008, entrepreneurs will soon be able to offer equity stakes in return for investments to a wider pool of investors who will be able to participate in these opportunities.

Sound crazy?

It may be. After all, crowdfunding might be the jumpstart the US economy has been waiting for, or it may be the quickest way for every day Americans to get caught up in the latest market bubble. But at this moment, at the birth of an entirely new industry, the frenzied anticipation around crowdfunding continues to build.

“Once the rules and regulations are finalized by the SEC, there will be investment limits that establish how much a non-accredited investor can invest into a project over a 12 month period,” explains Daryl Bryant, co-Founder of technology-focused crowdfunding portal StartupValley , which is also a sponsor of this week’s Crowdfunding Bootcamp Conference. “If a person makes less than $100k, they will be allowed to invest the greater of $2,000 or 5% of their salary per year. If a person makes greater than $100k, they will be allowed to invest up to 10% of their salary, not to exceed $100,000.”

Feel like scoffing at the idea of crowdfunding?

Just think about this – if just 1% of the sidelined dollars being held by American investors is funneled into crowdfunding, entrepreneurs stand to see 10 times more in capital infusions than they did in 2011 when only venture capitalists and their high net worth investors had access to this type of investing. That estimated $300bn would go a long way to allowing not only for innovation, but for the hiring of new positions. The potential for crowdfunding to be a win/win for the US economy – at least in the near term – is enormous.

And there are plenty of people looking to be what you might call “the entrepreneurs’ entrepreneur”. A cursory search of crowdfunding startups reveals numerous platforms looking to stake their claim on offering portals into this market, and more than a dozen looking to engage specifically in equity funding transactions.

As more and more portal launches have been announced it has become clear that many are looking to specialize in specific areas of investment. For example, east-coast based StartupValley, will focus on providing a market for tech-focused entrepreneurs to find investors because Bryant believes niche portals will be the ones that succeed long term. Bryant, who is a serial entrepreneur, is combining passion and expertise by targeting tech. “As an entrepreneur myself I understand how difficult it is to secure the capital one needs to get their company off the ground and to the next level. StartupValley is there to support technology startups with revolutionary ideas in mobile apps, social apps, websites, IT infrastructure, renewable energy, cloud computing, medical technology, and the list goes on.”

Startup capital is definitely getting more difficult to secure. An idea and a PowerPoint presentation are no longer very enticing to the angel investors who were once swayed to jump in at much earlier stages. In fact, established angel investors are more focused on making bigger investments (often banding together through regional networks), into companies that have already seen a certain level of success. So initial capital is more difficult to secure, which is where crowdfunding portals hope to step in and assist entrepreneurs.

However, while there will likely be no shortage of entrepreneurs seeking capital, the biggest challenge will be getting buy-in from investors. Although there are expectations that the activity on crowdfunding platforms will cover a wide swath of the investing public, the people who are active on Kickstarter, are not likely going to be the same people that are on equity crowdfunding platforms. Therefore, the regulatory constraints that the industry is awaiting take on great importance as any signs of fraud or impropriety would make for a very rocky start to an industry already challenged with getting initial investor buy-in.

Jim Dowd, a Managing Director of North Capital Private Securities Corp, a Broker Dealer affiliated with crowdfunding start-up 99funding.com is very focused on the regulatory aspect of this new industry. In an article he authored for Morningstar in 2012 he points out that the crowdsourcing provision, “The JOBS Act has the potential to energize small business growth by facilitating the flow of investment capital from individuals to start-ups. Let’s hope that the SEC is able to blunt a potential wave of fraud that would undermine this well-intentioned effort.”

Dowd has proposed four specific regulatory policy recommendations in a public letter to FINRA regarding proposed regulation of the crowdfunding industry. These recommendations include: A Simple Due Diligence Disclosure Document, Management Attestation, Standardized Financial Reporting Requirement, and Consistent Regulation of Financial Intermediaries.

As a former industry reporter in the Hedge Fund universe, I personally see a high potential for crowdfunding to spark a cottage financial industry. Hedge funds hit many asset levels over the years that caused people to declare “the top” had been reached, only to watch in amazement as managers soon claimed stakes on $3tln in assets. When I had the opportunity to speak with Dowd and his 99.funding co-founder Craig Goos, they agreed that early successes in crowdfunding have the potential to pave the way for enormous industry growth.

Although angel networks are investing in startups at later stages, it is very likely that they, VCs and other large investors will want to keep a hand in the early startup arena. The pair expects that the deal flow from these large investors will soon fund research specialists within regions and industries, as well as spark the need for cross market platforms that allow them to look across wide swaths of opportunities. “The opportunity that crowdfunding has is revolutionary. These investments are open to potentially anyone,” points out Dowd.

And with Kickstarter’s top 10 projects topping over $32m in funds raised in return for products like albums, watches, and fantasy games – it’s quite possible to think that the sky is the limit for the potential to entice investors into a lottery-ticket like equity stakes in the next Facebook or Twitter.

]]>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/10/09/equity-crowdfunding-portals-busy-prepping-for-2013-launches/feed/7The Parenting Minefield That is Social Mediahttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/10/04/the-parenting-minefield-that-is-social-media/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/10/04/the-parenting-minefield-that-is-social-media/#commentsThu, 04 Oct 2012 14:00:16 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=632Every child is just one decision away from making a mistake. As parents, we hope to help them avoid these mistakes by teaching responsibility – but, errors in judgment are an important part of the learning process on the road to adulthood. Unfortunately, the Internet introduces new challenges in parenting. Now, in the blink of an eye – with one silly post, or one tweet in anger and defiance, in an instant our children can lose control of a situation.

Today, my teen posted something snarky on Facebook. Luckily, I happened to log on and see it, and had her take it down almost immediately. She was annoyed at another girl, and said something funny/mean. Aside from the bullying factor – there is the simple fact that once something is posted – it can immediately be “shared” by others, and with that any control over a post is lost. Arguments between two children quickly escalate into arguments between dozens…or more.

I find myself cringing at what kids post on Facebook quite often. I have young cousins in my “Friends Feed” and more than occasionally their judgment leaves much to be desired.

Twitter has its own dangers, as we saw this week when a Clark, NJ teen posted that there was a stranger in her home and she asked people to call 9-1-1 . In a split second she sparked what was likely an expensive false alarm. Happily, she has since been located and while it may turn out that her actions were a cry for help of another nature – if her Tweet was sent out in a momentary flash of anger or frustration – its repercussions will likely be felt for quite some time.

All of these instances of children making mistakes online is occurring as large firms push back on the very basic regulatory protections for minors online that are outlined in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Facebook this week declared in a letter to the FTC that the “Like” button should be protected by Freedom of Speech.

“A “like” counts as free speech, the company has repeatedly argued, and muzzling a user’s ability to “like” something on Facebook would infringe on a user’s constitutional rights. “A government regulation that restricts teens’ ability to engage in protected speech — as the proposed Coppa Rule would do — raises issues under the First Amendment,” Facebook wrote in its letter.” (SOURCE)

This may make sense, until your child “likes” a page that promotes something not so nice (like the Springfield, NJ teens that created a Facebook fan page comparing a high school teacher to Aunt Jemima).

There are few “safe places” for kids online – as we are continually learning. With the FTC announcing investigations of General Mills, and McDonalds, we have watched major companies, which parents have grown to implicitly trust after years of branding efforts, transformed overnight into online “bad guys”.

“Children who visit McDonald’s HappyMeal.com, for instance, can “get in the picture with Ronald McDonald” by uploading photos of themselves and combining them with images of the clown. Children may also “star in a music video” on the site by uploading photos or webcam images and having it graft their faces onto dancing cartoon bodies.

But according to children’s advocates, McDonald’s stored these images in directories that were publicly available. Anyone with an Internet connection could check out hundreds of photos of young children, a few of whom were pictured in pajamas in their bedrooms, advocates said.” (SOURCE)

Building sites where parents can oversee their children’s activities has proven to be difficult for many firms. It’s a challenge we think too few entrepreneurs have focused on.

At Hatchedit.com we have built a micro social network around scheduling and organizational tools for families. Parents can establish an account for their children, giving them their own logins and passwords that allow them to post to the family page. On Hatchedit.com children are not searchable, nor can they connect with anyone outside the immediate family, unless their parents choose to invite them to a group chat with other people. We feel that sharing pictures within a family unit and participating in family communications through to do lists, calendaring, and chatting is a great way to introduce children to social networking in a controlled environment.

As entrepreneurs focused on the family and social networking we have also recently learned of a Canadian Startup that aims to help families safeguard children on their cell phones. The entrepreneurs at KytePhone, allow parents to limit the connections their children can make on their Android cell phones. The app, once installed on a phone, allows you to oversee which apps your child has access to, limit the contacts that your child can have on the phone, and lets parents allocate specific amounts of time to game playing.

I gave my daughter a cell phone so that as a working mom – I would be able to get a hold of her between school and afterschool sports and activities. The cell phone is my lifeline to her, but it is also a window that opens into a whole world of potential trouble.

According to the CDC “In the US, 46% of kids aged 8-12 have a cell phone, most getting them between the ages of 10-11″ (SOURCE) Another important fact? 55% of these kids also report being victims of bullying. (SOURCE)

“The interesting statistic is that 28% of parents don’t take any steps on teaching their kids the value of mobile safety,” KytePhone Partner Anooj Shah told me, citing statistics from a survey of Canadian parents. “We believe that is because they aren’t aware of a proper solution. We hope Kytephone can change that.”

The Kytephone app also gives parents oversight with details like call logs, photo logs, and gps mapping. As a mom who typically sneaks into her daughter’s room at night to check in and make sure there are no teenage texting wars unfolding under my nose, the KytePhone dashboard offers a means to more easily protect my child.

The combination of cell phones and Internet access has proven to be a parenting minefield for many of us. There are so many people focused on pushing our children to live their lives without the privacy that we took for granted growing up, it is important to support the entrepreneurs that are focusing on leveling the playing field for parents.

]]>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/10/04/the-parenting-minefield-that-is-social-media/feed/1New Twitter API Rules Embrace Tools Like Embedlehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/09/10/new-twitter-api-rules-embrace-tools-like-embedle/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/09/10/new-twitter-api-rules-embrace-tools-like-embedle/#commentsMon, 10 Sep 2012 15:00:50 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=619Embedle, a startup that first appeared at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NYC conference last spring, has just released the 2.0 version of its product – and the team has absolutely knocked it out of the park.

Never heard of Embedle? Well – memorize the name, because I guarantee you – that if you run a blog or leverage Twitter for business purposes – or are just a person with an opinon regarding the content you read online – you will be hearing a LOT about this firm in the coming months.

The new Twitter API, which has been the cause of much debate and consternation between Twitter developers and users alike, just received a gift in the launch of Embedle’s 2.0 version. With their new buildout, what the Embedle team (co-Founders Fei Deng and Daoliang Yang) has done is prove that it is possible to innovate on the Twitter API even as that company tightens the parameters on developers.

Embedle is in fact, exactly what Twitter’s Michael Sippy said the firm wanted developers to focus on (in what has become a pretty famous Twitter blog post)

Tools that help businesses engage with Twitter

Applications and services that serve the business market with analytics products based on Twitter content

Services that use Twitter content for social influence ranking

Okay – So What is Embedle?

The brilliance of Embedle is that it takes the now stagnant idea of the “comments section” of any content page online and breathes new life into it by leveraging Twitter. For example – if you are on this page right now – and comment in the Forbes comment box below – the only people that will see those comments are people that come to this page and go and look for them. Right?

But – if you drag the Embedle button onto your toolbar (just like you dragged the Pinterest button to your toolbar) – and then click on it while you are on any web page – (like this one for example) you can follow and join in on any conversation that happened on Twitter where someone was discussing that page. Its really incredible.

The team will also soon allow businesses to keep the Embedle window on their content pages – so that users that haven’t discovered the toolbar button will still be able to jump in and read and join the conversation. (Actually their business solution is MUCH more robust than just that – they have much better descriptions on their own site: here).

Embedle truly may be the tool that sounds the final death knell for comments on stagnant pages, and allows brands to push people’s opinions out into the ether. Think about it – if you are a brand – would you rather a handful of people comment on the blog post you put up about your newest product? Or that those same people comment on it via Twitter – where it is discoverable by an enormous potential audience AND served up with an embedded link to your page?

The pair may have also inadvertently stumbled onto a way to make Twitter much more intuitive for new users. The first time you see the Embedle window on the side of a web page – it just makes sense. And that is something that many people aren’t immediately able to intuit when they first view a regular Twitter stream.

Looking up information? Or reporting on a trend? Go to the newspaper article, or the Wikipedia page and read the Twitter discussions in the corresponding Embedle window. I bet you find insights you might not have thought of or even links to other, better, different information people have discovered. When you really start to dig around – you realize that Embedle has the possibility to bring the entire web to life in a living, breathing way that nobody has before. For example, Look at this post on UBER’s fight with NYC Officials and then hit the Embedle button in your toolbar. You are now part of the conversation.

Not only that but the team has taken their ability to work with brands to a new level. Brands can leverage these comments to build a real community. They can offer rewards for interactions, and they can jump in and be really active regarding the conversation about their site and their products. Embedle also offers enormous potential for bloggers who want to tweak posts when they see multiple comments or questions about certain areas of the content – and the research and analytics possibilities are endless.

The first time I discovered Embedle at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NYC Deng and Yang were pitching the firm’s 1.0 beta version. It wasn’t fancy. There were no bangs and whistles, and yet the nugget of their idea was so compelling I began using it immediately. The 2.0 version that has just been released, and that the co-Founders are pitching at this week’s Disrupt SF only solidifies the fact that there is still enormous potential to build tools that help brands leverage Twitter in really meaningful ways. Check it out – I promise you – it has the potential to be the next game changer.

]]>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/09/10/new-twitter-api-rules-embrace-tools-like-embedle/feed/2Please Don’t Be That Guy Who Writes The ‘Can Marissa Mayer Have it All?’ Articlehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/07/18/please-dont-be-the-jackass-that-writes-the-can-marissa-mayer-have-it-all-article/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/07/18/please-dont-be-the-jackass-that-writes-the-can-marissa-mayer-have-it-all-article/#commentsWed, 18 Jul 2012 15:57:19 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=543Marissa Mayer is a great pick for Yahoo, and on top of that exciting information we found out that she is pregnant.

Awesome for her! Truly. Pregnancy – for anyone who has been through it (ME!) can be the best and the worst time of a person’s life. But – barring extreme medical conditions (which FYI can happen to any person at anytime anywhere), it has limited bearing on whether or not someone can successfully accomplish their professional commitments. (As a sidebar: my business partner Megan helped me launch this business from her sixth month of pregnancy through childbirth and the first months of her daughters life – ALL while also holding down a full time executive position at an investment firm – women can TRULY do Spectacular things).

Of course, pregnancy isn’t really the issue. I mean – out of sight, out of mind for most men (and that surprisingly includes a gigantic belly sticking out in front of you). Seriously – in my own research of myself and friends commuting to and from jobs in the city – we were astounded at how FEW MEN give up their seats on the subway for enormously pregnant women.

Anyway – I am sure the concern isn’t whether or not Marissa can run a company now – the concern and the focus will be on whether or not she can run a company once her bundle of joy arrives.

And, unfortunately I’m also sure there will be multiple articles on whether or not she deserves to run a company – or to mother the bundle – because it seems as though the general consensus is that motherhood requires sacrifice, and too much success in any one area of your life means you aren’t sacrificing enough of one for the other. (Its way too crazy a thought that there are women who are so mentally superior to men that they could successfully run a business with anything less than 200% focus).

But PLEASE – for the LOVE OF PETE, DO NOT be the jackass who write’s the article “Can Marissa Mayer Have it All?” (I’m talking to you Freelance writers aiming for choice real estate in The New York Times or The Atlantic Monthly) – and sadly – now that I have Googled it I see there are QUITE A FEW of you out there.

Of course Marissa Mayer can have it all.

She is smart, successful, young, and as far as we can tell has a supportive partner in life. She can hire a team of childcare experts to help raise her child, and she can certainly afford to make every ounce of her time away from Yahoo as easy as she pleases so that no extra energy is wasted not appreciating her family.

Let’s put it this way – should she choose – Marissa Mayer will not likely need to spend time out of the office worrying about how to balance the bills at home (starving Peter to pay Paul), or cleaning her bathrooms and doing 8 loads of laundry in a weekend, or clipping coupons to make ends meet while still putting groceries on the table.

Women – let’s stop doing ourselves a disservice by focusing on the the women who have every advantage life can give them in maintaining a successful work/life balance, and instead concentrate on the women who struggle each day to make ends meet to provide for their families – and do not have the LUXURY of deciding “maybe I’m working too hard, and not spending enough time with the kids”.

Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

With wide swaths of women either raising children alone, or working long hours out of necessity (whether it be because they have a spouse that is unemployed, or underemployed, or for some reason cannot be employed) it is imperative that we ask ourselves why our own Government does not back women and make it illegal to pay them less than their male counterparts.

Shockingly this news was reported by The National Journal on July 13th: In Washing DC – “For all House staff, women made on average $5,862.56 less annually than men” and “Female Republican House staff made on average $10,093.09 less annually than male Republican House staff.”

It will be interesting to learn what Mayer’s pay package will be. At that level of the game, one would hope that things are so public, and her level of intelligence so high that there will be no discrepancy between what she is being paid and what her male predecessors have been paid. However, when you are counting in the millions – little of that number will have an impact on her ability to “have it all”.

Take a woman who works just as many hours in a much lower position, and subtract $20,000 or $30,000 a year from what she would make as a man – and we start to see why the answer is no – the bulk of women will never have it all – because we have made it financially impossible for them to have it all.

But to the mainstream media – don’t you worry your pretty little talking heads over it – Marissa Mayer will be just a-okay.

Seligson in particular, had at her disposal the insights of brilliant and highly successful executives in the tech industry. Cited in her article are women who have built firms that exceed $100m in sales (Jessica Herrin, Founder and CEO of Stella & Dot) are valued at $300m (Carley Roney co founder of XO Group), and are just flat out wildly successful (Alexandra Wilkis Wilson co-founder of Gilt Groupe). And yet she chose to frame that article in a “Mean Girl” spirit that praises female founded startups run by women with children at the same time it makes every effort possible to reinforce the noted worries of venture capital firms and other investors who are considering investments in such tech startups.

Yes, the responsibilities of being a parent typically fall more heavily on the woman in a relationship. And yes, juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship is sometimes challenging.

But so is running a business while still in college, or running a business as a newlywed, or while working full time for another employer – or any of the myriad situations in which many men find themselves launching their own tech startups. Situations in many times, where both investors and the press frame their coverage in admiration and wonder of the entrepreneur’s ability to juggle hurdles of time constraints and multi-tasking.

]]>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/06/19/the-new-york-times-declares-war/feed/0Tech Crunch Disrupt: 10 Startups Building Tech for Womenhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/05/30/tech-crunch-disrupt-10-startups-building-tech-for-women/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kirstenbischoff/2012/05/30/tech-crunch-disrupt-10-startups-building-tech-for-women/#commentsWed, 30 May 2012 13:47:36 +0000http://blogs.forbes.com/kirstenbischoff/?p=424Call it the Pinterest effect. Or call it developers waking up to the consumer power of tech savvy female users. In fact, call it whatever you want – we’re just happy to see it’s happening. A solid assortment of startups pitching at Tech Crunch’s Disrupt NYC in early May have created tools meant to solve problems faced by women in various aspects of their lives. While many of the sites and apps on this list may in fact be hoping to gain both male and female users, a strong focus on design and enticing user interfaces will likely make them popular with tech savvy female users.

“Designer goods for under $100, online eTailer where the community sets the trends. “

This site, which just might be brilliant, exists in a place somewhere between the latest issue of Net-A Porter and your personal Pinterest boards. Style Saint allows you to be the editor in chief of your own Style Book. Channel your own Nina Garcia, flip through tear sheets. I can imagine this as a great tool for fashion bloggers, and everyone from high-end stylists to personal shoppers looking to provide a higher, more creative, more intimate level of service to customers. Plus – here’s a huge note of interest, according to All Things D “this fall it will start designing and manufacturing its very own apparel brand based on the user-generated collections.”

Imagine Instagram crossed with the computer program Cher used to pick out her wardrobe in the movie Clueless. Definitely geared toward a younger audience, Tagbrand wants to help you figure out the brand of a specific article of clothing you see someone wearing, or to discover new brands, or let you help other people identify brands. With Pinterest’s outsized popularity, sites and apps like Tagbrand are trying to hook into the same idea, but focus the discussion on clothing, and allow people and brands an easier way to connect in a marketplace atmosphere.

“SnipSnap is the first mobile application to let you scan, save, and redeem printed coupons on your smartphone.”

What if while your phone was in your pocket it was helping you save money?

By far my favorite startup at the conference, Snip Snap allows you to take pictures of coupons (not grocery coupons – though they hope that will be added soon), and store them in your phone. An added bonus? The app alerts you to coupons you have when you are in a store. They also let you share coupons via Facebook, Twitter and Email.

“Unlock VIP rewards & perks at your favorite places when you pay with a credit card that is connected to Cardify – throw away your punch cards and keep that phone in your pocket.”

My wallet is stuffed with rewards cards – Talbots, Delias, Starbucks, etc. I hate them. They keep me from using one of the cute clutch bags that are in style this season. Cardify – which has not yet launched – makes me hopeful that someone is working hard to help rid us of bulky wallets, and yet keep it easy to reap the rewards of customer loyalty.

Like many businesses that have tried to leverage Facebook ads for user acquisition, we at Hatchedit.com quickly realized that the ROI was miserable. In fact, you can read a case study HERE about how our experience with Google’s Ads surprisingly also fell short of what we think is the best network for user acquisition via advertising (Hint: StumbleUpon). I’ve also covered Facebook’s dismal ad performance (HEREandHERE)

And yet, my business partner and I did rack up quite a few hours of angst over our decision to pull our Facebook ad campaign. After all, it is pretty counterintuitive not to have a voice on the Internet conduit connecting 900 million people.

But, the reality is pulling our ads did not silence our Facebook voice, because we are maintaining content (lots of great, original content, which is a free, but time consuming task). Likewise, according to GM, the auto manufacturer will still spend an estimated $30m generating Facebook content via a network of ad agencies.

The media’s GM feeding frenzy, along with its obsession with Facebook‘s decline in ad revenue during the first quarter is evidence that there are vast numbers of people who haven’t wrapped their minds around the scope of Mark Zuckerberg’s vision. In fact, those who have not wrapped their mind around the vision likely include many IPO investors, as it has been reported that many of the questions asked during last week’s pre-IPO roadshow focused on advertising revenue models.